Sunday, July 31, 2011

Today's manicure is Manglaze Mayo topped with Lynnderella's First Edition Snow Angel. If you haven't heard of lynnderella, you're probably not on makeupalley. She is a frankening genius, who up until recently only made her creations for pleasure. She has some truly unique and amazing creations that you can find photographic examples of around the web. She recently sold a limited edition set of creations here: Lynnderella's blog site. They sold out uber fast and I only managed to get on the backorder list because she is a doll. Hopefully her first sale didn't burn her out to the point that she never does one again, but honestly I would be happy to know she's out there still creating with her joy of the process intact. Snow Angel is a really cool white hex glitter in a sheer base that I layered over matte white. This mani is one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, two coats of Mayo polish, one coat of Snow Angel and one coat of Seche Vite tc.All these photos were taken indoors with artificial light except where indicated.Low natural light without flash:Low natural light without flash:

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Per a reader request, this manicure is a comparison between Chanel Graphite and Revlon Carbonite. I found Carbonite at CVS today.They are close and yet miles apart. Both have a black and silver metallic foil finish, but Graphite has purple and golden shimmer particles that give it more depth than the Revlon dupe.This mani is one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, two coats of polish, and one coat of Seche Vite tc.Indoors in low light:Indoors with flash:Outdoors in sun:

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Ozotic 520(Molten) and 530(Elytra)This mani is one coat of Illamasqua Boosh, one coat of Ozotic Pro 520 and one coat of Ozotic Pro 530 over the thumb, middle finger nail, and pinky. These Ozotic multichrome polishes are amazingly multidimensional, but also quite sheer. The elytras have fine/sparse glitter as well. I'm not sure they are worth building up on their own given their price. I swatched three coats of each polish on my swatch wheel and immediately decided to layer over black when I did a mani. Tonally, Ozotic 520 and 530 are quite similar and complement each other well. They flash:RED RORANGEGOLDEN ORANGEOzotic 505(Eclipse) and 528(Elytra)This mani is one coat of Illamasqua Boosh, one coat of Ozotic Pro 505 and one coat of Ozotic Pro 528 over the thumb, middle finger nail, and pinky. Tonally, Ozotic 505 and 528 are quite similar and complement each other well. They flash:TEAL GREENBLUEPURPLEPINKLook at this awesome shot:Ozotics are Australian polishes, but can be purchased in the US from picturepolish.auThese pictures were taken outdoors in natural light.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Today's manicures are two new polishes from Chanel's three polish Fall collection. I couldn't bring myself to buy the frosty beige. My grandma is too cool for that.The other two colors besides Quartz (being Peridot and Graphite) are both amazing in my opinion. Good application and beautiful depth. Peridot appears mostly as a sparkly gold shimmer but shows green around the edges and at certain angles to the light. Graphite is almost a silver foil, the purple and golden green sparkles give the appearance of rough texture.As to dupes, the closest thing I could find in my collection to Peridot was OPI At Your Quebec and Call and Nicole by OPI Sea How Far You Go, AYQAC it is much darker and more subtle without duochrome and NOPI SHFYG is more similar in finish but not as vibrant as Peridot. As for Graphite, Ulta Pro Twilight is of a similar flavor, as is OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (what a terrible name...). I believe Revlon has put out a dupe called Carbonite, though I haven't seen it yet. I would be happy to do comparison swatches if some people want them. These manis are one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, two coats of polish, and one coat of Seche Vite tc.These pictures were taken indoors using artificial lighting.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Today's mani is Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid. Cult Nails is a small independent brand that can be purchased here: Cult Nails.com. I ordered 7 colors from their July 4th sale. The shipping was quite fast. This polish is a dusty greyed-out lavendar shade with a primarily creme finish (and some subtle silvered and green/pink microshimmer). I think the bottle pics are more color-accurate for low lighting and the swatch pics for bright light. The formula is thick and smells odd, but applies very well. Too early to tell about wear yet. This mani is one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, two coats of polish, and one coat of Seche Vite tc.These pictures were taken indoors using artificial lighting.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Today's manicure is a skittled OPI Grape...Set...Match from the latest Serena Williams set (I believe it's Wimbledon), and the two closest purple dupes I could find in my stash. I didn't have an exact match. Both LA Girl Rock Star Groupie and the unnamed purple from Hot Topic have a similar finish, but are a shade darker (noticable even in low indoor lighting). I feel like Grape...Set...Match is a bit pinkish toned even. What's with OPI and Suzi's egregious use of bad puns and repetitive random punctuation? Ewe-no Watt Eye...Green?This mani is one coat Spa Ritual Lacquer Lock bc, one coat CND Stickey bc, two coats polish, and one coat of Seche Vite tc.These pictures were taken indoors using artificial lighting.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

When I saw promo photos of the recent Wet n Wild craze summer collection of rainbow colored cremes called Inked. I couldn't wait to buy them. The problem? Wet n Wild limited edition collection releases have been spotty here in southern CA lately. There was a beautiful island-themed collection last summer that simply never materialized here, despite being available in other US markets. Wet n wild has such a low price point that scalpers don't even bother putting these collections on eBay. The toughest part about nail polish information being available at your fingertips with the internet is that you hear about something great and affordable that you simply can't get. It's one thing if it's overseas or no longer in production (which happens a lot with nail polish), and another if it theoretically SHOULD be available to you, but isn't for reasons unknown. I'd like to ask Wet n Wild to make these polishes available for consumers to buy online so that they don't miss out on so many potential customers. I was resigned never to see these until my wonderful stepmom agreed to look out for me while visiting Michigan. She brought them all home with her. Thank you! They may not be the most unique, but they apply well and complement each other beautifully. For those who live in places where Wet n Wild l.e. collections do show up, these are 5 of the 9 colors available in the collection (the other four being pink, purple, black, and white). The red is called Writings on the Wall, the orange is called Scratchiti, the yellow is called Art Crime, the green is called Undercover Grafitti, the blue is called Tagger. Here is my fourth of July weekend rainbow skittle manicure.This mani is one coat SpaRitual Lacquer Lock, one coat CND stickey, two coats of polish, and one coat of Seche Vite top coat.These pictures were taken indoors with artificial lighting.